The nonequilibrium thermodynamic approach, by contrast, looks for the emergence of lifelike behaviours in driven physical systems, comprising disordered, self-assembling, and self-replicating ones [1]}, [2]}, [3]}, [4]}, [5]}, [6]}, [7]}, [8]}, [9]}, [10]}.
Remarkably, it has been recently proposed that nonequilibrium thermodynamics could generalize Darwinian evolution, even for non-replicating systems [11]}.
The idea is that exceptional specialization, or fine-tuned adaptation, to an environment by a fluctuating physical system can be fueled by the irreversible work consumption along far-from-equilibrium trajectories [12]}, [13]}.
This exceptional self-organized response of a driven system to the patterns of its environment has been called dissipative adaptation [2]}, [3]}, [10]}.
Quantum physics can, once more, help us to showcase the most elementary aspects of dissipative adaptation [17]}.
Yet, thermodynamic studies of adaptation have been focusing mostly on systems that stabilize in the out-of-equilibrium states, lacking a more thorough discussion on the origins of diversification [18]} and open-ended evolution [19]}, [20]} akin to that achieved with artificial life, and necessary for explaining the ever-growing complexity and diversity of biological species.
